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No. 86: Mar-Apr 1993

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A Curious Sighting

September 29, 1991. Winchester, Eng land. A wet day, but the rain had stopped and the wind velocity dropped. The 'subject' is a B. Brumpton. His actual words are in single quotes, as told to B. Hayes:

"A high easterly breeze was blowing along New Road which runs eastwest and is about 400 yards long. The subject was 30 yards from the western end facing east. He first noticed the 'object' at approximately 150 yards, at which his reaction was that he was 'seeing things'. The object 'filled the highway', so this suggests a width of eight metres or so. It was 'on the ground' and 'round-topped', suggesting to me a hemisphere. The 'object' was a 'mass of mist' and 'looked very wet'. It seemed to 'roll' toward the subject at a speed that he estimated at 30 m.p.h. However, his estimate of halfa-minute for travelling 150 yards gives a speed of 20 m.p.h. Let us not forget that time is difficult to estimate after an event.

"The object emitted a noise 'like very heavy rain pounding on the road', except that it was not raining at the time, and the subject became concerned about 'getting soaked'. Also, the 'mist' was clearly visible in spite of the darkness. This suggests the possibility that the 'object' was luminous. The observer moved into a driveway on the south side of the road, but when a few yards away 'the object moved over' to the north side and 'just vanished'."

(Hayes, Brian; "A Curious Sighting, 29 September 1991," Journal of Meteorology, U.K., 17:346, 1992.)

From Science Frontiers #86, MAR-APR 1993. � 1993-2000 William R. Corliss